CBD products: what you need to know
Use of CBD products has tripled in the past year. We look at the evidence supporting the health claims.
Use of CBD products has tripled in the past year. We look at the evidence supporting the health claims.
Health claims ranging from easing anxiety to relieving pain are used to promote CBD products, a form of medicinal cannabis. Last year, 21,452 products were supplied to Kiwis, up from 6993 in 2019. So, what is CBD, will it get you high, and what does the research say about its benefits?
CBD, or cannabidiol, is a chemical compound found in cannabis plants. You won’t get high on CBD products. That’s because the tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the compound in cannabis that delivers the high – is low. Rules restrict the amount of THC and other specified substances to no more than two percent of the total CBD.
CBD oil products contain concentrated CBD. They typically come in oral drops or capsules.
Both CBD and THC interact with the body’s endocannabinoid system. There is more to be learned about this system, but research has found it affects various functions including mood, appetite, movement and the immune system.
CBD products are classified as prescription medicines. So you’ll need a prescription from your doctor. You can’t get more than a three-month supply at one time.
Most medicinal cannabis-based products are “unapproved medicines” (except for a drug called Sativex, which contains both CBD and THC, and is used to treat multiple sclerosis symptoms such as muscle spasms). The Medicines Act allows doctors to prescribe unapproved medicines – drugs that haven’t been vetted by Medsafe – provided rules for supply are followed. The Medicinal Cannabis Agency, part of the Ministry of Health, is responsible for assessing medicinal cannabis products, including CBD, to make sure they meet a minimum quality standard. Products that meet the standard can be prescribed by a doctor.
Suppliers have until 30 September 2021 to get their products assessed. So far, two CBD products have been ticked off against the standard.
A doctor can prescribe a CBD product that hasn’t met the quality standard, but the prescription has to be for a named patient. The doctor must import the CBD product themselves or get a pharmacy to import it on their behalf.
Instagram ads touting CBD oil-infused chocolate from the US may flicker across your social media feed. But you can’t just click on an ad for a CBD product and then have it shipped here. Because these products are prescription medicines, you typically have to buy them from your doctor or a pharmacy.
There are more relaxed rules for CBD in other countries.
For example, it’s legal in many US states to buy CBD without a prescription. In Australia, pharmacies can supply low-dose CBD over-the-counter, although products must be approved by the medicines regulator.
Prices for CBD products vary depending on where you take your prescription and what you’re getting.
Prices we found listed on clinic websites ranged from $60 (750mg of CBD) to $400 (4500mg). You also need to factor in the cost of your doctor’s appointment.
Scientific research on the effectiveness of CBD to treat medical conditions is in its early stages. There’s some clinical evidence CBD, by itself, may be effective in treating epilepsy, psychosis, anxiety, and movement disorders such as multiple sclerosis.
However, this evidence isn’t considered strong.
In many cases, trials were small or had mixed results. Adverse side effects, such as nausea and diarrhoea, have been reported in some studies. No studies have assessed the long-term negative effects of medicinal cannabis-based products.
Professor Michelle Glass, University of Otago Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology head, said “there’s a wealth of claims on websites that are not grounded in research or there’s very little research to back them up.
“Given what you’re spending, you’re actually nowhere near what’s considered a therapeutic dose.”
Prof Glass said there’s clinical trial evidence for paediatric seizure disorders that show CBD is very effective in pure, pharmaceutical-grade high doses (600mg per day).
Is CBD addictive? Prof Glass said “there’s nothing to suggest it is”.
Here’s the state of evidence for using CBD to treat certain conditions.
There’s a lack of good evidence that CBD reduces anxiety and more research is needed. While there have been many studies, they’ve had small sample sizes. In 2011, for example, a study involving 24 participants found CBD more effective than placebo for reducing anxiety associated with public speaking.
It’s uncertain if CBD can help ease inflammation or inflammatory conditions. A 2020 review of CBD as a possible treatment for arthritis and other joint diseases found a lack of high-quality evidence.
Two reviews, conducted in 2018 by the Cochrane Collaboration, studied the effect of cannabis and CBD on two illnesses that cause severe inflammation: ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. The authors found the evidence inconclusive and more research was needed.
There’s no good quality evidence showing CBD reduces insomnia. Research shows drugs containing both CBD and THC improve sleep in the short term for people with some conditions, such as sleep apnoea.
There’s evidence cannabinoids may be effective for chronic pain, but studies rarely involved CBD alone. A 2019 review, published in The Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, found just three small trials assessing CBD alone in treating pain. The results were inconclusive.
A 2018 review by the Cochrane Collaboration found no high-quality evidence that any cannabis-derived product, including CBD, helps chronic neuropathic pain (arising from damaged nerves).
There is evidence for the use of highly concentrated CBD to help treat two forms of child-onset severe epilepsy – Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and Dravet syndrome. In 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a CBD medicine, Epidiolex, to treat seizures related to these syndromes.
I have CRPS, a broken tendon and torn ligaments all inoperable due to CRPS so have severe chronic pain. As such I'm on strong meds including Morphine. A specialist prescribed Cbd and I've not looked back, it definately helps with pain, (doesn't take it away but nothing does) helped lots with anxiety and depression caused by injuries and pain (I was put on anti depressants but they made me suicidal so had to cease use) have had no side effects, I'm on Equalis brand which is NZ made and cheaper but is still expensive and not funded but is worth the expense. I've also gave my father some who has crushed nerves in his back, It helped him also.
I am fortunate in that I have an excellent Doctor. It took him 2 years to diagnose me with Fibromyalgia, as he did this by individually having each of my problems checked through the hospital to check for what else may have caused the problem. In other words, ruling out other reasons for the problems that arose.
Anyway, after 2 years, Fibromyalgia, or "Fybro" for short, was the resulting diagnosis. This disease is more common in women than in men, but I have it, and there is no easy fix, as anyone with it will attest to. It can most closely be described as being similar to Arthritis, but in the muscles rather than in the bones. There are many other affects too, but in my case at least, the muscle aches are the most debilitating. To know more about this horrible condition, you can look it up in recent Medical Journals, or Google it.
The Crux of the matter is that with many days of suffering at my work, and with the usual pain medications leaving me in no real condition to work and creating problems of their own, I eventually sourced some CBD oil in a desperate final bid to find something that might relieve the symptom's and allow me to continue working.
In short, nothing else prescribed to me by my Doctor came even close to giving me the relief that the CBD Oil, (and also Marijuana [leaf], which was easier to source), did for me. Total relief. Unbelievable. And once I had worked out a minimal effective dose, there was no looking back. a low dose before work, and once work finished I could repeat, or up the dose a little if, and when necessary. There was no placebo affect here, else one of the promising drugs that my Doctor had prescribed would have worked. The biggest problem was sourcing it, and getting to the lowest effective dose.
So it definitely works for me 100%, and I am now almost 70. I don't see any side affects, and even if there were any, this has given me a quality of life that I otherwise would not have had, and rather than being at the stage of feeling "hurry up and take me from this world", I enjoy my time above ground.
Should this help even just one other person, then it was well worth my effort to write this.
Good Luck.
I have Neuropathy and I am aware that people overseas use CBD products to ease their symptoms. Until now I would have liked to have been able to try them for myself. Thanks to this report I will shelve the idea.
As a side comment I have tried smoking cannabis and found it made my symptoms worse.
Many grasp at anything that is not a ‘drug’ and then reach for substances which are rich cocktails of undefined constituents. The mystique of cannabis and its association with the ancient religions and more recent ‘hippy’ culture is attractive. The reality is that CBD after decades barely has any efficacy in any indication (even the approved one childhood epilepsy). Few products available here are approved by Medsafe and few existing ones overseas would fulfill the criteria required for CBD oil of a consistent quality. I think all this will end up being a fad, that these mysterious properties, so needed by the desperate who have found no solution through doctors, will fill a void for a while like a raft of other alternative therapies. Some doctors don’t mind prescribing unknown substances they haven’t a clue about simply to keep ignorant patients happy (or less angry). The truth is that absent of evidence is not the same as evidence of absence. Many forget that little knowledge is dangerous and there are many ‘natural!’ substances that have been shown to both injure patients snd even kill them. For those that think that is rubbish I suggest they look back in history.
You have a lot of opinions and no actual knowledge of pain or CBD effectiveness. No offence however if you don't have any evidence why bother just toddle on along.
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